Enterprise Team-Chat Solutions: This is the
do-or-die year.
By David Maldow

30 OPINION

From The Eye Of The Law: The possible
challenges and risks for early adopters of
emerging technology.
By Josh Srago

33 VIEWPOINT

Software vs. Appliance?: A range of voices
weigh in on the continuing debate.
By Marc Cooper

Josh Srago
Award-winning AV professional

www.ITAVReport.com

Ira Weinstein
Founder and Managing Partner
Recon Research

42 OPINION

The Last Word: The yin and yang of emerging
technology.
By Ira M. Weinstein
Spring 2019

3

emerging technology

From The Desk
Of The Director Of
Emerging Technology
An overview of what this issue has in store.
By David Danto
When I joined the Interactive Multimedia & Collaborative Communications Alliance
(IMCCA) as one of its Executive Board Members in 2007, I was asked what I wanted my
title to be. It didn’t seem appropriate to be the CIO or CTO of a small nonprofit industr y
association, and plain old “technology guy” seemed downright stupid. We came up with
the title Director of Emerging Technology because that was the best description of what
I did. As a longtime industr y end user, consultant and analyst, and now as Director of UC
Strategy and Research for Poly, staying on top of emerging technology was at the core of
what I did and now still do.
In all the roles above, I’ve had to understand which new technologies, ser vices, advancements, products and strategies are hitting the market at any given time. Which ones are
game-changers? Which ones represent new and better ways of handling some past task?
Which ones are just plain bull? Getting to those core answers, and incorporating a new way
of working into my daily schedule where I could do so, helped me to become the “digital
immigrant” I am today.
In the IT/AV space, there are many fellow “digital immigrants,” as well as digital natives
and the Luddites—the last are the old-school people with their heads in the sand who refuse to do anything that veers from what they’ve always done. This issue of IT/AV Report is
definitely not directed at that group (whose members probably don’t even understand why
we’re talking about IT and AV in the same sentence).
If we are to remain relevant in the IT/AV space, we have to be aware of how technology is changing more rapidly today than at any time in the past. We have to understand
the changes—embrace the good ones and reject the bad ones—all before the next change
comes barreling down at us.
So, in this, the first edition of IT/AV Report that I am responsible for editing, I felt it appropriate to focus on this changing landscape. We’ll be covering how “this isn’t your dad’s
AV industr y anymore” by discussing 8K displays, Bluetooth audio in conference rooms, big
data, Team Chat for the enterprise and much more.
In “Viewpoint,” we’ll open an old wound—namely, software versus hardware. Have we
finally reached a tipping point where collaboration endpoints can and should be general
compute engines, or is there still life in the appliances that the industr y grew up on? Also,
starting with this issue, we’ll introduce a couple of recurring columns. In the first, Josh
Srago will fill us all in on his legal perspective regarding our corner of the technology
world; in the second, longtime industr y analyst and icon Ira Weinstein will have the last
word on whatever strikes him as most important among the topics we’ve covered.
As for me, I’m ver y proud to have been given this responsibility for our industr y. I won’t
let you down. I’ll be sure to bring our readers the best perspectives from the best sources—wherever they might come from. (Look for my opinion column, “All Voices,” on page
16 in this issue, as well.)
It’s not hard to reach me if you need me. Write to Sound & Communications, Google my
name or just find me walking the aisles at any given trade conference (CES, NAB, Enterprise Connect, InfoComm, LDI, and on and on…). I’ll be the one walking quickly, scoping
out booths for the emerging technology, and tr ying to see if it’s a fit or a flop.

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and the SYNNEX Logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & Tm. Off. Westcon, Comstor and GoldSeal are registered trademarks of WG Service Inc., used under license. Other names and marks are the property of their respective owners.

IMCCA

Understanding AV-Over-IP

A primer on integrating IP-based products into systems and how
AV-over-IP differs from traditional AV.
By S. Ann Earon, PhD
AV-over-IP is an expression used to describe the distribution of audio,
video and control signals over a network using IP switching and configuration protocols. The network in question can be a local area network
(LAN), wide area network (WAN) or the internet. Over the last few
years, there has been a gradual replacement of traditional AV infrastructures with IP-based infrastructures. Distributing AV-over-IP has
many advantages:
• AV-over-IP offers significant cost savings versus the use of
traditional AV switchers.
• Systems are more scalable and flexible because switching
configurations are not confined to standard port limitations.
• IP switches allow for longer cable lengths to be run using standard Cat5e cable.
Integrating an appropriate AV-over-IP system into an
AV environment helps ensure that future flexibility
and scalability will be a priority, and it keeps integration and operating costs down. The goal is effective
use of low bandwidth, no latency and high AV
How AV-Over-IP Works
quality.
There are two types of networking methods: circuit switchOrganizations want to leverage their data
ing
and
packet switching. AV has primarily used circuit switchnetworks as the transport infrastructure for
ing
for
AV
switching networks, and IT has traditionally used
AV, as well as to transport email, voice over
packet switching for data networks. In a circuit-switched network,
IP and file transfers. Scalability, flexibildedicated point-to-point connections are made to distribute streams
ity and reach are benefits to streaming
of
data. In a packet-switched network, data is sliced into small packets
audio and video information over the
and
delivered to various destinations that request the data.
network.
The key advantage of packet-switched networks is that they allow
With the development of AV-overmany ser vices and users to share the same infrastructure. Traditional AV
IP, IT professionals can manage
switchers
have typically offered uncompressed video switching and have
their AV network with familiar
rarely
relied
on coding to compress and transmit the AV and control signals.
switched technology and not
AV technology has become more IT-capable. AV hardware can now encode and
worr y about costly port
decode AV and control signals so they can be transmitted over a packet-switched
expansions when growth
network.
To distribute AV signals over a packet-switched network, the signals must
occurs.
pass through a dedicated encoder that converts the signals to an IP-compatible packet
format. To receive the same signals on a display or speaker system, a decoder must
also be used to convert the packets into compatible AV signals for a display or speaker
system to process.

Traditional AV vs. AV-Over-IP

AV-over-IP differs from traditional AV due to the evolution of the following parameters: scalable switching, distance barriers, video standards and interoperability.
• Scalable switching: Many organizations are replacing traditional AV infrastructure with IPbased AV infrastructure. Matrix switching allows all combinations of transmitters and receivers to
be resolved inside one box. Advanced products can perform processing operations, instead of just
S. Ann Earon, PhD, is President of Telemanagement Resources International Inc. (TRI) and Founding Chairperson of IMCCA,
the nonprofit industry association for conferencing, collaboration and unified communications. She can be reached via email at
annearon@aol.com.

making any input available on any output. With IP packet-based switching, the number
of sources attached to the IP switch is no longer as limited. When physical ports run
out, multiple IP switches can be connected to expand. This much more convenientTo determine which vendor
ly allows the number of ports required for scaling. Sources and destinations can
to select for your AV-over-IP
be added without the need to overhaul the matrix switcher. With AV-over-IP, the
deployment, review the criteria
rate of inputs to outputs can also be tailored. It is possible to have many inputs
below.
Determine if those bidding
and a few outputs, or the reverse.
for your work meet the criteria and
• Distance barriers: With traditional AV, there is a distance limit
will connect you with previous custombetween boxes. IP-based AV can be transmitted over copper (categor y)
ers for independent feedback.
cable and over fiberoptic lines. The categor y (Cat5, Cat6, etc.) cable
has a maximum distance of 100m, but it is possible to switch and
• Bandwidth requirements: Any technolrepeat in series. Use of AV-over-IP increases flexibility by overcomogy selected should meet all bandwidth
ing limits to the number of sources and destinations, as well as by
requirements for both primary and remote
conquering distance limitations.
sites. This includes determining the amount
• Video standards: Some AV-over-IP products use standardsof bandwidth required for video and multimedia
based packetization for transmission over IP networks and
needs.
compatibility with IP switches. Other products use pro• Configurable: Any system should be easily configprietar y packetization schemes, which also work on IP
ured
to address growth and change without the need
networks and standard IP switches, but do not work
to add additional equipment or significantly alter what is
with other products on the market.
currently installed.
Standards-based schemes provide the potential for
• Conformity to existing networks: Most organizations do
interoperability between products. Standards-based
products tend to have a road map that provides
not want to have to rebuild their networks to handle AV and
greater infrastructure-migration benefits. It
multimedia images. Instead, it is important for them to be able to
is important to use standards that adhere
use existing networks with minimal disruption.
to published, open specifications, and not
• Control: Be sure all the AV-over-IP solutions offered by the manujust to alliances that do not publish their
facturer can be configured and controlled using the same platform.
protocols.
This will simplify deployment, operation and maintenance. The right
• Interoperability: Interoperability
system will also provide monitoring, troubleshooting, remote assistance
refers to the potential for the streams

and schedule call launching. Automation and ease of use are key to success, especially as the systems are scaled for larger deployments.
• Ease of use and deployment: Find a unified control platform that works
across all the manufacturer’s solutions. The platform should also allow easy upgrades and have good troubleshooting capabilities. Speak with the manufacturer’s
customers to determine their satisfaction with deployment and ease of use.
• Experience: Select a vendor with real-world experience with proven installations
and customer testimonials. Evaluate system performance, manufacturer and dealer
support, and ease of deployment and use.
• Full suite of solutions: Look for vendors that offer a full suite of solutions to meet AVover-IP needs. Be sure the vendor of choice offers a wide range of options so you are not
steered to just what they offer, which may or may not meet your needs.
• Image and video output: One parameter to focus on is how the image and video output is perceived by those viewing the screen. Although this may be a subjective evaluation, it is important
that the image be robust enough to satisfy the communication requirements for video and graphic
displays. To provide a technology comparison of different vendor solutions, it is best to do so against
a signal from a PC.
• Scalability: Growth is an important factor for most organizations. Installed systems must be easily
expandable without the need for major changes in order to scale to meet user needs.
• Security: AV-over-IP implementations should include security features to deter hackers from penetrating
the network. This includes media and management stream encryption, access controls and digital content
protection.
• Standards-based: Seek manufacturers that provide standards-based technology and that are active in standards-based organizations that work to improve standards and facilitate interoperability throughout the industry.

8

IT/AV Report

of data to work with a broad base of
technology and to offer converged
infrastructure. Interoperability is
not just determined by whether the
packetization scheme is standardsbased or proprietar y. Interoperability also does not establish whether
a product is secure.
Some vendors’ AV-over-IP
encoders and decoders are tightly
coupled, meaning they must both
come from the same vendor. The
main reason for this coupling is to
provide customers with guaranteed
performance and specifications.
This also allows for easy setup and
increased ease of use.
Some vendors offer encoders
and decoders that work with other
vendors’ products. These products
emphasize interoperability and
the ability to use a wide range of
features and functions from many
vendors.
And some vendors’ products offer both tight coupling and interoperability. This allows features and
capabilities from a wide range of
vendors to be leveraged.

New Opportunities With AV-Over-IP

Using AV-over-IP provides opportunities for new applications
including IPTV, digital signage and
streaming.
• IPTV: Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) is a system through
which television ser vices are
delivered over a packet-switched
network such as a LAN, WAN
or the internet, instead of being
delivered through traditional cable
television, satellite or terrestrial
formats. IPTV is widely deployed
into end-user premises via set-top
boxes or customer-provided equipment. IPTV is often used for media
deliver y on corporate and private
networks. IPTV is noted for providing live television and live media,
time-shifted media (record-andreplay shows) and video on demand
(whereby users can browse and
view from a stored-media catalog).
• Digital Signage: Organizations
can configure AV-over-IP streaming
platforms to tap into any enterprise

www.ITAVReport.com

digital signage system. Organizations
can now decide exactly what is on the
screens in their enterprises at all times.
Networked AV content can be shared
on displays in the lobby, screens in
conference rooms, in break rooms and
in training areas. Content can also be
played from personal devices. Each
location can have access to the same
content at the same time. All that really
matters is that the network is designed

to handle the data load.
• Streaming: Streaming is a technology used to deliver content to computers and mobile devices over the
internet. AV-over-IP technology takes
streaming to a different level. Instead
of placing transmitters and receivers at
all the devices in a room, the AV-overIP model calls for an encoder at each
source device and a decoder at each
destination device. The encoders and

decoders are all connected to standard Ethernet switches. This allows organizations to
connect as many encoders and decoders as the network design allows, and the ability to
scale up comes at a lower cost.
Streaming allows users to access content before the entire file is downloaded. It
delivers data as needed. The streamed data is automatically deleted after it is used.
Livestreaming is used for internet content delivered in real time as it happens. It
is popular with live television shows and sporting events. Streaming, designed
for audio and video deliver y, is now being used for gaming and apps. Downloads are quicker and use less data with on-demand streaming resources. A
core set of features and functions are downloaded, and then new content is
streamed as users need it.
entirely segregated networks that
never coexist with packets of data
Encr yption technologies exist for many aspects of AV-over-IP
from an organization’s data or commuproducts, and they address multiple components of AV system
nications network. Alternatively, existdesign. For security against hacking of the boxes, encr yption is
ing infrastructures of network cabling
available on the command-and-control signaling to the devices.
and switching are often used for AV-over-IP
This includes turning the stream on or off, switching what is
applications. AV-over-IP implementations can
being displayed and encr ypting the video stream itself. Some
be done without compromising IT network seproducts provide support for third-party devices that use
curity. The ability for many organizations to use
digital key exchanges for encr yption.
AV, communications and data together (known
Many customers are concerned with High-bandwidth
as convergence) is a major benefit and reason
Digital Content Protection (HDCP), which is designed
organizations are looking at uniting their AV and IT
to protect content as it travels between devices.
networks and operations. It is important to leverage
HDCP-compatible products are locked and can only
advanced network security technologies like 802.1x aube accessed once authenticated. These products
thentication, AES content encr yption and active director y
offer restrictions on how content can be viewed,
credential management.
altered, multiplied or extended.
Most traditional AV products and AV-overThe Future Of AV-Over-IP
IP-based products have command-and-conThe future of AV-over-IP presents opportunities for both ventrol ports that allow for remote control of
dors and users. UK-based research firm Futuresource, in a newly
the boxes. These command-and-control
announced study, found that sales of AV-over-IP products (encodfunctions can be protected with encr ypers and decoders) are experiencing a year-on-year increase of 130
tion, permissions and passwords.
percent, and AV-over-IP is enabling a whole new era of AV control and
AV-over-IP can be deployed on
distribution. Expect explosive growth in networked AV-over-IP deployments this year. AV-over-IP is in the early adoption stage, but it will become
mainstream over the course of the next five years.
The Audiovisual and Integrated Experience Association (AVIXA) did its own
appraisal of the future of AV-over-IP in its 2017 AV Industry Outlook and Trends
Analysis (IOTA) Global Summary, which provides an economic outlook for the
industr y through 2022. According to the report:
• The cloud will increasingly become more common in IoT (Internet of Things)based AV solutions, which will reduce operating costs.
• The global AV industr y generated $178 billion in 2016. While revenue from European
operations decreased, the Asia-Pacific region experienced significant growth. The industr y is expected to generate an additional $5 billion with an annual increase of 4.7 percent
through 2022.
• Security, sur veillance and life safety solutions generated $14.7 billion in 2016, with 50 percent
of that total spent on security cameras. By 2022, the AV market will grow to $22.9 billion, with
the bulk of that gain going to AV capture and production equipment. AV revenue from hotels,
casinos, resorts and cruise lines will increase to $14 billion by 2022 from $7 billion in 2014. The
healthcare market will also see double-digit growth.
Understanding AV-over-IP—and the implications it has on organizations’ AV and IT infrastructure—
will help organizations to adapt to the future convergence of technologies and AV applications in meeting
environments more effectively.

AV-Over-IP Security

10

IT/AV Report

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big data

Data Lake

An AV tech’s guide to swimming in a deluge of data.
By Case Murphy

The simple definition of
a ‘data lake’ is a storage
repository that holds a
large amount of data in
its native format.

Where are you right now as you read this article?
Are you are sitting at a coffee shop or on the showroom floor? Maybe you’re
relaxing at home, sitting in your parked car or at any one of a thousand locations
where you might have a free moment. I wrote this paragraph on an iPad, waiting
for my six-shot Americano (don’t judge me) at a small coffee shop in middle America. I finished the article in the wilds of Minnesota in between video meetings.
What I’ve described isn’t a radical shift in the way we work. We have operated
this way for more than a decade. Most of us knowledge workers are now a collection of remote-working, mobile-wearing, flex-time-needing, Wi-Fi-loving, 5G-wishing, high-performing individuals who bring their own devices and personalities to
the job ever y day.
The way we work isn’t the big myster y that I’m tr ying to solve when I wake up.
The important question that I want answered is why we work this way. Why do I
choose one app over another? Why do I always walk down the same path to get to
my desk? Why do I like using my iPhone earbuds more than my Bluetooth headset? And why do I always leave them in my pocket when I do laundr y?
This fundamental change in my thinking is important as I shift from looking at
AV as a product or a ser vice and begin understanding that AV is an experience
that integrates with the lives of employees and customers. The AV industr y and its
products, designs, support and ser vices are in a necessar y paradigm shift—from
contained content consumption to a geographically diverse connected experience.
The impressive fact is that we already have the information we need to move

Case Murphy has 20 years’ experience in the unified communications industry leading teams at multiple For tune 100 companies. His focus is on continuous product lifecycle and a people-led, tech-empowered user experience. For more information,
go to www.casemurphy.com.

12

IT/AV Report

for ward. It is what we do with this
information and how we analyze it that
will create the next level of personalized customer experience.
We are inundated with data points
daily. Ever y device, product and platform we touch wants to gather or give
information. At times, I find myself
struggling to tread water in a deluge of
data. Perhaps it’s time for a swimming
lesson.
Over my career leading the AV
experience at several large companies,
I have learned that using data helps
direct and enhance product lines
and ser vices. There was some rough
sailing in the beginning—to say the
least—but, as I have grown in this
space, I’ve learned a lot along the way
and want to share some lessons.
Before I go on, I will add that, to
keep this shorter than a Tolkien chapter, I’m skipping over the legal/governance/privacy issues and focusing
on data. That’s not to say that those
issues are not important—trust me,

they may become your biggest challenge. But rather than focus on those,
today I am simply sharing my roadmap
and examples of how I am using data
to enhance the customer experience
in both physical and virtual meeting
spaces.
Ready? Let’s jump in and learn how
to swim.

Lesson One: Don’t Be Scared To Get
Wet: Product-Usage Data And Where
To Put It

We need to start swimming somewhere. Where better to start than a
data lake? The simple definition of
a “data lake” is a storage repositor y
that holds a large amount of data in its
native format. In this context, let’s just
say it’s a big hole where we can dump
water (or data). Unlike a data warehouse that uses a hierarchical structure
like files or folders, a data lake is flat.
Having no waves makes it easier to
swim, right?
Keeping this analogy going, looking

at a large body of water can seem intimidating when one is new to swimming.
So, we should probably build a dock.
What’s great about having a flat lake is
that we can build any kind of dock we
want. Let’s define the dock as the tools
and technology that enable the analysis
and aggregation of data across products
and platforms in an attempt to understand the user experience. Simply said,
we can use this data to develop a better
product.
Why is this construct important in
the AV world? Let’s break it down. In
my opinion, we need manufacturers
to build telemetr y into their products.
From face detection in cameras to AI
chipsets in media players, we are seeing
this become a reality. However, issues
continue to exist centered on retrieving the data in a useable format. Many
times, the data can only be retrieved
using a proprietar y or third-party
platform. This might be useful at first,
but it quickly becomes a roadblock. As
more companies bring on data scientists

AV incorporates a collection of data points
from multiple products and individual experiences.

and specialists, it will be important for them to collect usage information quickly
and in its raw format. REST APIs are useful, but they often limit us to how others
have formatted and used the data. This can make waves in the lake.

Now the water’s above our waists, and we’re gathering data on specific product
usage. But how many enterprises are just using one platform or one product? The
second lesson focuses on taking in data from multiple products and using that
data to understand and build a better experience.
The best way to explain this lesson is to examine a use case. To make it simple,
let’s look at UC client usage from one individual: Swimmer One. We can see
Swimmer One is using her UC client, but, instead of using her computer audio,
she is having the client dial back into her cellphone. This may be an issue, as
this behavior will add an additional cost to the company while VoIP usage is free.
There could be many reasons why Swimmer One is doing this. Is there lowerquality audio on her laptop over VoIP? Did her headset disconnect, or did the
client crash? Maybe she doesn’t know her behavior adds cost.
In my experience, this is where cross-product data can help us. With the ability
to take data from multiple products, we start to have deeper insight into Swimmer
One’s user experience.
Let’s say in this case we have data from the UC client in a call and data from
her laptop client. The laptop client shows that no headset is attached to the device. With both datasets being sent to the data lake, we begin seeing correlations
between both product experiences. Maybe we need to order her a headset, send
a notification with information on where she can get one or ask her neighbor to
quiet down.
Here’s one more example of cross-product data analysis. Let’s take the data
from the camera in a conference room. That camera can tell how many people
are in the room at a given moment. I can take the data from the room-booking
platform and match that to how many people the room holds. Just like that, I can
begin solving meeting room space issues by right-sizing the experience. The next
step would be to use artificial intelligence (AI) to do that work by nudging users
to choose the right room in the first place. You can begin to see that there are no
limits to what we can discover about what our users need and what we can do to
enhance their experience.

Now you’re comfortable in the water.
This is an exciting place to be! After
working out some of the foundational
items, you’re ready to start swimming
in your data lake. This is the opportunity to start leveraging other data
platforms to receive a deeper context
to the experiences we are creating.
The easiest way to explain this is by
examining datasets that, as AV people,
we often don’t use. For instance, let’s
look at data from a human resources
platform. We can take the information
found there and begin to build personas around our users. We can create
a persona for ever yone from remote
workers to executives and across
tasks. Defining these personas allows
us to turn a product experience into a
personalized experience. This is when
things get interesting!
Take remote workers as an example.
If we dive into the data, we begin to
understand they will need a certain device or software. If we dig further, we
could possibly discern they will need
tools that allow them to work anywhere
without restriction, or that they will
be using their mobile app more than
anything else. These personal details
will allow us to engineer solutions that
give our users what they need, when
they need it.

Other contextual data we can look
at is physical movement through the
office. Using heat mapping, we can see
what spaces are being underutilized or
overutilized. We can analyze environmental platform data at the same time
and make decisions on where and when
to cool, heat or light a meeting space.
We can even use this data to prioritize
which conference room spaces are slotted for a refresh to maximize impact.
We can also see that a certain persona
may prefer one conference room over
another. We then can investigate the
reasoning behind these behaviors and
take that feedback to engineers who
will enhance and personalize the experience with the next iteration in our
product lifecycle.

We’re swimming! Now we’re ready to
master those strokes. We’re gathering
data from multiple products and platforms and using that data as needed.
We’re analyzing and using it to guide
the enhancement of our user experience. We can now compare data from
the time a meeting is scheduled to start
with the actual time a meeting connects. If we see a gap in those times,
we could conclude there may be issues

with the ease of starting a meeting. If
we add contextual data that shows it is
mostly the finance persona in this gap,
we can focus in on what those specific
users will need to optimize their performance. Perhaps we should emphasize
training. Maybe we have the wrong tool
in place. What is clear is that using this
data will improve decision-making as it
pertains to how we enhance our room
design or why we place digital signage
in a certain location.
What are the next steps? We want to
leverage this data to do more than just
enhance the experience. All this new
cross-product contextualized information can be used to control costs, drive
sales or create a better work/life balance. We can align this data with business goals to make sure we are driving
change. The possibilities for enhancement are nearly endless.
The next few years will continue to
be an exciting time for our industry.
The rate of technical change is always
increasing. To stay ahead of the changes,
we must use data as a tool to help ensure
we are making user-impacting decisions
as quickly and effectively as we can. It’s
certainly not easy to achieve the level of
usefulness we require from the data lake.
There is a lot of work to do to change
technology and culture. But, in the end,
it will be worth it. Then, once we’re done
swimming, we can contemplate dipping
into a hot tub full of AI.

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Spring 2019

15

opinion

All Voices

A marketplace of ideas
is always superior to a
monopoly on them.

By David Danto
As the new Editor of IT/AV Report,
I’m adding a few recurring columns
that will be clearly marked as opinion
pieces, just as this one is. I would argue
that, yes, although we in the industr y
want to read about new technology, we
also want to know what others among
our peers are thinking. Indeed, when
I worked as a collaboration consultant,
the question I was most often asked
was, “What are the other guys doing?” We all inherently want to learn
from others’ successes and mistakes,
desiring to stand on the shoulders of
those before us to reach those higher
heights.
IT/AV Report partakes in that spirit
with its “Viewpoint” section, which
I was honored to coordinate and/or
participate in many times in the past.
That section will continue well into the
future. After all, getting ever yone’s
thoughts on a curated topic helps frame
the issue in a manner that is unique.
However, going for ward, we’ll extend
the coverage of opinions to include industr y leaders and obser vers who can
fill us all in on what’s happening and
how they see it affecting what we do.
Famous (infamous?) AVtweep Josh
Srago decided to leave his role in
the AV industr y about a year ago to
pursue a law degree. He felt that no
one was really looking at our technology space from the perspective of what
is legal. He’s not a lawyer yet—in fact,
he doesn’t even play one on TV at
this point—but his unique perspective
has been tremendously insightful as
regards an aspect of what we do that’s
long been ignored. We’ll share his opin-

ion contributions on an ongoing basis.
Famous (infamous?) industry analyst Ira Weinstein offered his observations from
his chair at Wainhouse Research for years, and he’s now begun his own firm, Recon
Research. Weinstein has always had a unique perspective on the AV and collaboration space, and he can always be counted on to drive to the core of an issue with
unmatched speed. We’re giving him a page at the end of this issue, as well as future
issues, to deliver the last word on the topics we’re covering.
Although I’ll edit both of those contributions for style and grammar, their thoughts
will come to you unedited. What good is hearing only one idea—only one voice—
when we all seek the opinions of our industry peers to help shape our own thoughts?
I encourage others in our industr y to reach out to me and share their views, as
well. Within the space constraints of our biannual publication, I’ll do my best to
make this a forum where all opinions are welcome. It will never matter if you work
with me (in my day job) or work for a competitor. It won’t matter if I agree or disagree with you. It would do the readers of this publication a disser vice to restrict
the opinions published only to those with which the Editor agrees.
Sadly, forums of this type are becoming less common in our industr y. Conferences that used to include sessions and programming by partners that represented the best and brightest in their respective fields now no longer have those
partners. Some organizers feel they can do it “just as well themselves,” and maybe
save a couple of pennies in the process. That’s a sad commentar y on our industr y.
As soon as one restricts the source of opinions to only oneself, attendees of and
participants in one’s events are stuck with blind spots that can result in problems they never saw coming. I certainly hope this trend is temporar y and can be
reversed.
It’s instructive to remember that the best managers are the ones who hire
the brightest people and just let them shine. The employees look good, and the
managers look great for having recruited them. The super visors who want to
micromanage and control ever ything are never as successful or as appreciated.
The same principle applies to conferences and seminars. If an organizer brings in
the associations and partners that represent the best and brightest in the space,
then both they and the organizer shine. If the conference or seminar is restricted
to only the organizer’s voice, then one loses in quality what one has gained in
control. In that case, the attendees and participants will see the difference—I
guarantee it.
“All Voices” used to be a part of our industr y’s mantra. Ever yone was welcome
at the table. Now, the opportunities to participate have diminished. In this publication, I promise to make sure that ever y voice will have the opportunity to be heard
going for ward. Reach out and share your opinions; participate in the conversations
that shape our industr y. You’ll always be welcome here while I’m in the Editor’s
chair.

David Danto has more than three decades’ experience providing problem-solving leadership/innovation in media and unified communications technologies for various firms in the corporate, broadcasting and academic worlds. He now works as the Director of
UC Strategy and Research for Poly, and he’s the IMCCA’s Director of Emerging Technology.

16

IT/AV Report

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education

By Brynn Beal
The advent of robust, video-first
technologies is changing the traditional classroom, in both primar y and
higher education. This transformation—from a technology perspective—is redefining student and faculty
interaction, as well as reshaping the
physical classroom and the student
engagement process. Where we are
today and what’s happening on the
horizon are exciting realities that students, teachers, parents and the firms
that provide educational technologies
should take notice of.
Today, schools can connect and
leverage resources better than they’ve
ever been able to before. Several
cloud-collaboration technologies
are competing for mindshare in the
marketplace; the primary benefit is
enabling students to learn anywhere,
on any device. Applications developed
by Microsoft, Cisco, Slack, Google and
others allow for on-demand meetings,
continuous workstreams, chat/messaging and integrated video. This supports the concept of flipped learning—
defined as “a pedagogical approach
in which direct instruction moves
from the group learning space to the
individual learning space, and the
resulting group space is transformed

Video First In Education
Emerging collaboration technology is expanding
possibilities inside and outside the classroom.

into a dynamic, interactive learning
environment where the educator guides
students as they apply concepts and
engage creatively in the subject matter.” With these applications, education
can be facilitated beyond the walls
of the classroom in a persistent and
secure space. Students are now enabled

to work with peers outside of their own
districts and universities, and teachers
can cooperatively lecture with colleagues in their field who may sit on the
other side of the world.

User Experience Is The Differentiator

I personally heard a vendor presenting its technology to a customer and a
group of salespeople a few weeks ago,
and the opening portion of the presentation boasted, “What sets our technology apart is the seamless and highquality experience.” That was a strong
statement. I thought to myself, “I’ve
heard quite a few vendors make this
same statement in the last six months.”
Maybe the differentiator doesn’t lie in
the technology itself. Maybe we look
at what’s happening at the end-user
level to make better recommendations
for the evolving student and faculty
environment.
The power of choice is an incredible
privilege to give a child. Collaboration
tools, now more than ever, are providing students in K-12 and university
environments the ability to choose how

Brynn Beal is a Solutions Architect at Dimension Data North America, a global systems integrator and proud member of the NTT
Group. She has been in the technology industry in both sales and technical roles for 10 years. She loves black licorice, New Yorker
cartoons and staying current on technology trends.

18

IT/AV Report

power of sway often can come from
the students. Andrew Crawford, CIO
of Christopher Newport University, in
Newport News VA, commented, “Our
students bring the technology to us.
We’re a face-to-face campus—small
class sizes with no online course offerings. The adoption of technology by the
faculty has been a result of the students
using tools to augment their classroom
experience and bringing new applications to our attention that they’ve found
to be successful [in their use of collaboration].” He went on to add that the
school’s faculty now employs collaboration technologies to offer virtual office
hours, provide training online and
asynchronously communicate among
colleagues. Their adoption has grown
with the increase in student use.

Being An Effective Education Partner
they learn, improving outcomes for all.
By offering them options around how
to obtain, consume and retain course
material, students have become more
motivated and collaborative, regardless
of personality type and learning style.
Technology providers like Microsoft
and others are embedding features that
support physical and learning disabilities, and they’re implementing proven
techniques to improve reading and
writing. Blackboard, commonly used
among K-12 schools and universities,
has features that accommodate hearing,
visual and physical disabilities.

Evolving Education Environments

Beyond student agency and choice,
the physicality of schools is changing.
I spoke with Mike Sylofski, Managing
Coordinator of E-Learning Ser vices
at Northeastern Regional Information
Center (NERIC), in Albany NY, and
he explained that schools are seeing
different furniture layouts to facilitate a
more modern educational experience.
For example, the teacher’s podium is
removed, and flexible, comfortable
seating is provided in a design that can
be changed often. Huddle spaces are
becoming more common, with the ability to video-enable the space wirelessly
www.ITAVReport.com

and with one touch. Polycom released a
USB video bar with plug-and-play functionality that transforms a small room
into a video huddle space. Cisco has
updated several endpoint technologies
to allow for a simple, consistent video
experience that can scale from a small
class discussion to a large lecture.
But how quickly are these changes
happening? What are the barriers to
change?
Even though it’s much easier to connect with colleagues today, given the
tools we have in our hands, adoption of
the technology depends on the demographics of the school or university.
At a recent IMCCA event panel
discussion that explored the shift in
collaboration adoption among enterprise organizations, a panelist commented that adoption is challenging
among organizations because of the
stark differences between gen Z, millennials, gen Xers, baby boomers, etc.
Another panelist spoke up and voiced
his disagreement; he pointed out that
adoption of technologies in the organizations where he has worked (and led
teams) was solely dependent on the
buy-in from a group of key individuals
who have influence or power.
In the university setting, that

An increase in adoption combined
with an often-fragmented deployment of technologies brings the need
for visibility, security and simplified
management of these tools. It sounds
much easier than it is, which is why
there are a number of organizations
focused on providing managed ser vices
to offload these efforts. An increase
in subscription-based consumption,
combined with a move to cloud-based
technologies that are integrating into
more tools ever y day, calls for a partner
that can help with the administration
and management—improving end-user
adoption, optimizing spend and increasing ROI.
Looking ahead, technology solutions
in education will continue to improve
rapidly. We’re seeing advances in both
the bridge between asynchronous and
synchronous learning and applications
that bridge the physical and virtual
learning spaces. With a device in ever y
student’s hand, campuses will have
to become more digitally intelligent.
Whereas that’s a wild reality for people
who, like me, didn’t even have a desktop computer in college, it’s an endless
horizon for our children. We should all
be excited to keep watching this space
as it grows and turns all of us into
students of the technological advances
along the way.
Spring 2019

19

connect

Designing Bluetooth Into AV Systems
How to use consumer-friendly wireless tech in commercial-grade meeting spaces.
By Rob Sheeley
Bluetooth has become the wireless
audio standard built into all of our
wireless devices. With more than five
billion Bluetooth devices forecasted
to be shipped this year, it’s an integral
part of our ever yday lives. However,
the idea of Bluetooth being used in the
world of commercial AV has always
been considered crazy at best. As a
wireless consumer audio standard
with a ver y limited broadcast range
and nominal audio quality, it always
seemed best suited for personal
headsets and Bluetooth speakers in
consumer applications. However, as
Bluetooth has grown to become the
most adopted wireless audio standard
in the world—and the one used by
all of our customers—it’s no longer
something that we can ignore.
This article will focus on how to
design a Bluetooth network into a
meeting space and how to integrate it
into an audio system design. I’ll cover
the basics of Bluetooth, the connection process, Bluetooth profiles and
integrating a Bluetooth Wireless Access Point (B-WAP) into your meeting
room space. The B-WAP integration
discussion will cover B-WAP location
determination, cabling consideration,
transmission distances and how to integrate the B-WAP into an AV system.
Using a B-WAP in this manner will
exponentially increase the ease of use
for end users. It represents a simple,
wireless connection between a user’s
device(s) and a meeting room’s audio
system. The keyword is simplicity.
The B-WAP is designed to streamline
the process of making conference calls
in meeting rooms with a computer,
laptop and/or mobile phone. Making a
conference call will now be as easy as
tapping the Bluetooth connect button
on the user’s device. Adjusting the
volume, muting and connecting can all

be done on the standard volume control on the user’s device.
Understanding and incorporating this technology will be well worth the effort.

A typical B-WAP.

Bluetooth Basics

Bluetooth technology was originally developed as a short-range wireless communication technology designed to replace cables—the ones responsible for
physically connecting electronic devices, such as keyboards, digital tablets, headsets, speakers, printers and other devices, to a PC. In today’s world, all mobile
devices have Bluetooth, and the wireless connections are likely higher-bandwidth
multimedia streams. The goal of a B-WAP is to provide a secure, long-range wireless connection—an audio bridge, if you will—between a mobile device such as
a laptop or smartphone and a room’s audio system. It becomes a simple wireless
connection between devices and a room’s audio system.
The Bluetooth RF transceiver in the B-WAP operates in the unlicensed ISM
band centered at 2.4GHz—the same range of frequencies used by microwaves and
Wi-Fi. The transceiver employs a frequency-hopping technique to combat interference and fading. Bluetooth devices are managed using an RF topology known as a
“star network.” A group of devices synchronized in this fashion form a “piconet”—
a network including one master and up to seven active slaves; additional slaves
may be out there, but they are not actively participating in the network. The
B-WAP becomes the master device in the network. All other devices connected
to the B-WAP are slaves. In order to provide a secure connection, the B-WAP will
allow only one slave to connect to the system at one time.
On the B-WAP Bluetooth network, the physical radio channel is shared by the
group of devices synchronized to a common clock and frequency-hopping pattern.
The B-WAP provides the synchronization references. Devices on the Bluetooth
network use a specific frequency-hopping pattern, which is algorithmically determined by the master device. The basic hopping pattern is a pseudo-random ordering of the 79 frequencies in the ISM band. The hopping pattern may be adapted
to exclude a portion of the frequencies that are used by interfering devices. This
adaptive hopping technique improves Bluetooth technology’s coexistence with
static (non-hopping) ISM systems, such as Wi-Fi networks, when they are located
in the vicinity of a Bluetooth network.

The Connection Process

All Bluetooth devices have a unique 48-bit address, commonly abbreviated as
BD_ADDR. This will usually be presented in the form of a 12-digit hexadecimal

Rob Sheeley is a serial entrepreneur who has founded, sold and acquired multiple companies in the AV industry. He holds numerous patents in camera control technology, video display and software IP. He now serves as the CEO/President of Williams AV.

20

IT/AV Report

value. The most significant half (24
bits) of the address is an organizationunique identifier (OUI), which identifies the manufacturer. The lower 24
bits are the more unique part of the
address. Thankfully, the B-WAP can
be given a user-friendly name such as
“ConferenceRoom100” for easy identification.
Creating a Bluetooth connection
between the B-WAP and a Bluetooth
device is a multi-step process. The
first step is the inquir y: If the B-WAP
knows nothing about the device, it
must run an inquir y to tr y to discover
the device. The B-WAP sends out an
inquir y request, and any device listening for such a request will respond
with its address, possibly its name and
any other information. The second step
is the paging, or the connecting step
between the B-WAP and the Bluetooth
device. Before the connection can be
initiated, each device needs to know
the address of the other (found during
the inquir y process). After the device

has completed the paging process, it enters the connection state. Once connected,
a device will remain connected until it is no longer actively participating. All end
users have to do is tap the Conference100 Bluetooth icon on their device and they
are connected.
Whereas consumer Bluetooth devices are designed to automatically pair with
each other once the two devices have been “bonded,” an enterprise-grade B-WAP
is specifically designed not to use auto-pairing. This feature proves ver y effective
in a corporate/enterprise environment, where the decision to pair your device
with a room’s audio system should be a conscious choice. And whereas consumer
Bluetooth devices stay paired until they are out of range, the B-WAP automatically
disconnects the user when the audio or video conference call is completed. In the
case of streaming audio, end users can easily disconnect the audio signal when
they are done. That way, the system becomes immediately available for the next
user. As stated earlier, the B-WAP only allows one device to be connected at one
time. Each time someone connects or disconnects from the Bluetooth network, an
audible tone is sounded through the speakers to alert ever yone of connection or
disconnection status.

Bluetooth Network Considerations

Bluetooth started out as a short-range networking solution where, in the best
of conditions, you might be able to achieve a 10- to 15-foot range from the transceiver. The B-WAP for professional audio is a long-range, omnidirectional, class 1
solution designed to provide total room coverage. In a typical corporate or education environment, you can easily achieve a broadcast coverage pattern of up 100
feet. In a wide-open, low-interference area such as an auditorium, lecture hall or
outdoor venue, the coverage pattern can reach up to 300 feet.

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Like any wireless access point system, the goal is to
on the aptX HD codec. The aptX HD codec is the high-deficentralize the location of the B-WAP to maximize the
nition version of the aptX codec that Qualcomm developed a
Bluetooth broadcast coverage. So, whenever possible, the
few years ago. The goal of utilizing the aptX HD codec was
location of the B-WAP should be as close to the center of
to significantly improve the audio quality with a higherthe room as possible. Wireless signals tend to spread the
quality 24-bit/48kHz audio stream. This is done at a slightly
signal downward, so it’s best to mount the B-WAP as high
higher bitrate by increasing the bandwidth of the Bluetooth
as possible to maximize coverage. We recommend mountstream. The result is excellent audio quality, low latency and
ing it on the ceiling. The B-WAP can be directly mounted
ver y little background noise.
to a single-gang electrical box (if conduit is required), or it
Professional B-WAP solutions offer a simple and secure way
can be mounted directly to a sheetrock ceiling or wall usof delivering wireless Bluetooth functionality in enterprise
ing screws and anchors. If mounted to a suspended-tile or
conferencing environments. Users don’t have to do a massive
locked-in, mineral-tile ceiling, make sure adequate support
upgrade to their current audio system, and integrators can
has been added behind the ceiling tile. B-WAPs tend to be
easily add it into new room designs. This technology will begin
ver y light, weighing less than eight ounces. A standard
showing up more frequently in enterprise environments as usCat6 cable provides the power to the B-WAP and also
ers and integrators experience the simplicity of installation and
distributes the audio input and output and control signals
the power and value of the wireless solution.
back to the headend unit. The cable distance between the
B-WAP and the control unit can be up to 150 feet.
Another thing to consider during BWAP placement is that wireless signals
can pass easily through open space and
even through sheetrock walls. However,
these same signals can be blocked by steel
beams, concrete, brick, wire mesh, and even
windows and mirrors. If any such materials
are located in the room, plan accordingly
to prevent any possible signal blockage and
interference.
In large lecture halls or auditoriums with
higher ceilings, larger space coverage and
a multitude of other wireless equipment,
the best placement location for the B-WAP
might be in the front of the hall, next to the
presenter’s work area. The presenter is typically located where the connected device is
located, so this is a great choice for placement.
In order to meet the needs of the professional audio integrator, we need to provide the highest-quality audio signal. The
Bluetooth transceiver in our B-WAP is based
A diagram of a prospective system.

22

IT/AV Report

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Advances in display tech mean better picture quality, but there are still some tradeoffs.
By Joel Silver and David Danto
This year’s CES show—the 52nd in
its history—continued the transition of
this exposition from a “products” show
to a “concepts” show. As the topics get
more amorphous, it becomes obvious how hard it is to demonstrate new
solutions using a conventional physical
booth—one can’t very well showcase
artificial intelligence (AI) or 5G with a
model holding them in his or her hands.
But then, bucking the trend, there are
always the latest displays to touch, feel
and, of course, see.
At CES 2019, industr y people and
the media gathered around, ogled and
drooled over a number of displays
that all boasted the newest and hottest
feature: 8K resolution. Yes, some of
the images were fantastic and certainly
created a “buying lust”—even among
the financially challenged press corps.
However, there were some striking
differences in the quality of the images
on the various displays showcased.
Mixed in with the standouts were 8K
models whose picture quality was soft
and fuzzy, artifact-ridden and downright
fatiguing to watch. Once again, hyping
the hottest buzzword didn’t necessarily
equate with having the best product.

Perceived Picture Quality

8K, in and of itself, is no nir vana.
Perceived picture quality is always
going to be dependent on the quality of
the content, the quality of any devices
processing the image, the quality of the
medium that brings the image to the
display and the manufacturing quality
of the display itself. Yes, 8K displays
can be awesome, but, with distribution challenges and hardly any native
content, taking the leap to 8K today in
the commercial integration world would
likely be foolish.
In order to understand where and

how 8K fits as the latest entrant into the display world, it’s helpful to look at the
“Space, Light and Time” classification of digital displays. After all, digital TVs
(DTVs) are simply machines that turn bits into pictures—they transform digital
data into physical images using space, light and time.
Space: The number of visible lines or pixels onscreen.
Light: How bright the picture is, and how many colors are visible onscreen.
Time: How many pictures are flashed per second; in other words, “temporal
resolution” or frames per second (fps).
The first digital displays—released in 1982—digitized our old analog TV images (the ones that used either 525 or 625 TV lines.) So as better to understand
how these displays evolved into 8K TV, let’s start at the beginning with how
analog displays brought pictures into our homes and trace the evolution of these
space, light and time parameters to our current era of ultra-HD displays, including 8K.
ANALOG TV
Space: Either 525 or 625 horizontal lines top to bottom
Light: Tube TVs (CRTs) had a brightness of only 100 nits, but had unlimited steps
between black and white
Time: Either 50fps or 60fps, unchanged since the 1930s
STANDARD-DEFINITION DIGITAL REC. 601
Space: 640x480, or roughly 300,000 (.3K) pixels to process
Light: 100 nits, 220 steps from black to white at 8-bit, CRT TVs’ phosphor-based
colors
Time: The same 50/60fps since the 1930s
HIGH-DEFINITION DIGITAL REC. 709
Space: Up to 1920x1080, or roughly 2,000,000 pixels (2K)
Light: 100 nits, 220 steps from black to white at 8-bit, but somewhat
improved to 1990 CRT colors
Time: The same 50/60fps since the 1930s
ULTRA-HIGH DEFINITION—2012 SPECS BT.2246-1
Space: Up to 8K—roughly 33,000,000 pixels
Light: Up to 10,000 nits, roughly 1,000 steps from black to white at 10-bit, roughly
4,000 steps at 12-bit
Time: Up to 120fps. “Temporal resolution” is finally improved—and sports look
awesome!

Beauty & The Beast

The first thing to realize about any DTV is that creating perfect analog
pictures using bits will never happen. DTV deploys elementar y calculus using
“points” to emulate a “cur ve,” and the cur ve can never be completely smooth.
But with more points from higher bit depths, and more places to spatially posi-

Joel Silver is the President and Founder of the Imaging Science Foundation, Inc. (ISF), which incorporated in 1994 to introduce
image-quality-improving calibration services into HDTVs. There are now more than 12 million HDTVs shipped each year under
license to the ISF.

24

IT/AV Report

tion them at 8K, intelligent processing at 8K can deliver the best TV
images ever seen—but only if the
TV’s processing is up to this massive
challenge!
In this sense, 8K processing is a
case of “Beauty and the Beast.” 8K
technology can produce beautiful
images, but the image quality can be
so high that it creates a whole new
set of problems. Each of the display
parameters identified above—space,
light and time—presents its own
Beauty and its own Beast.
Space: The Beauty—Evolving
from .3K to 8K provides the potential
for smooth, artifact-free pictures if
processing deploys sufficient power
and speed coupled with intelligent
algorithm engineering. The Beast—
8K reveals poor processing like a
jeweler’s loop reveals defects in
diamonds.
Light: The Beauty—Even a 1,000nit TV is 10 times brighter than our
old TVs, and 2,000-nit TVs were all
over CES 2019. Those TVs can use
up to 200 times more steps from
black to white and can create color
and light transitions that are more
lifelike and relaxing to watch than
ever before. The Beast—Brighter
TVs reveal motion artifacts and poor
color transitions that induce user
fatigue.
Time: The Beauty—We have been

www.ITAVReport.com

watching 60fps since 1939. HDR’s
space, color and light have revolutionized watching movies in our homes.
120fps will do the same for sports.
The Beast—Double the number of
frames per second increases the cost
of processing and the challenges for
engineering intelligent algorithms.

8K Conclusions & Future Potential

Here is what is important to know
about 8K displays for the immediate
future:
n There is far more to 8K than just
less-visible pixels. Improved control
over motion in space, plus precision
modulation of light and color, produces an improved digital-to-analog
conversion that is clearly visible, even
to the casual viewer.
n If video processing is superb in
time, space and color, then 8K pixels
enable visibly smoother transitions
and deliver more analog-like pictures.
n Motion artifacts may still occur,
but they are one quarter the size and
therefore less visible.
n 8K 120fps will redefine “temporal
resolution” and revolutionize watching
sports on TV.
n At first, only the tier-one TVs will
look awesome with 8K, whereas many
TVs will look worse with 8K. We will
get what we pay for. Don’t go shopping at Costco for the cheapest 8K display out there and expect it to perform

commensurate with all the hype of the
best displays.
8K displays showcase what the
planet’s best engineering teams can
accomplish with spatial resolution.
They exhibit vastly improved space,
color and light. These qualities will only
improve as the manufacturers keep
improving the products and features.
However, with the lack of consistency,
lack of content, lack of standards
around deliver y and just the simple
newness of the devices, we wouldn’t
recommend them for commercial applications just yet.
When the units are actually available, the first wave of 8K buyers will
be people who want to be able to say
they purchased and installed “the best
there is.” These implementations will
be solely for bragging rights. As the
other elements come together, expect
8K to follow the same commercial path
as HDTV and ultra HD: prices will
come down, peripherals and processors
will improve, and content will be more
available. It is at that point that 8K TVs
should be given serious consideration
in commercial applications.
But as for CES 2019, many of us left
the show feeling like we, once again,
need to get new TVs. After all, someone
has to remain on the bleeding edge—
and it might as well be us. At least it
beats buying “The White Album” again
in yet another audio format.

Spring 2019

25

corporate

The Changing Face Of The Office Floor Plan
This ain’t your daddy’s (or your) workplace.
By Christopher Maione, CTS-D, DSCE, DMC-D
Offices today are sporting a new generation of design that favors collaboration and inclusion. These spaces focus on light, flow, flexibility, technology and
communication. By flattening the hierarchy of corner offices, private offices and
cubicles, the changing face of the office celebrates transparency and creates environments that cater to the needs of the team, treating team members as people as
much as employees.

Let’s Take A Tour…

Welcome to our new office. Please have a seat in our lobby area, which feels
a lot more like a five-star hotel than a reception area. Cue the super-friendly and
helpful staff: “Can I get you a water, coffee, latte, cappuccino or (depending upon
the time and nature of your visit) a cold beer?”
Walking around the office, you will see that either we just moved in or we
recently renovated—and, in doing so, we ripped down all the walls that separated
the spaces, and we now feature a completely “open” office floor plan. In some
cases, we’ve even ripped out all those ugly things over our heads. I believe you
used to call them “dropped ceilings.”
Private offices? Not so much. We feel they were restrictive, almost like “isolation caves,” and definitely not in line with the collaborative environment we are
fostering. Instead of offices, we have air y, open workspaces, where ever y desk
has adjustable sit-to-stand surfaces. We even designate many desk areas as flexible spaces, so you can move freely from desk to desk. For the generations that
have grown up working around communal tables at Starbucks, our design offers
more amenities, better lighting and infinitely better acoustics.
We have a variety of touch-down areas for our team—spaces where we can
informally meet away from the distractions of our desks. We are communityminded and environmentally friendly, so we have forgone the pulp-eating copiers
and printers in favor of PDFs or collaboration tools such as Google Hangouts,

Microsoft Teams and Dropbox, just
to name a few. As for the rows and
rows of file cabinets, we threw them
all away and moved our document
storage to the cloud.
You’ll be hard-pressed to find a
formal, stuffy boardroom; gone are
the traditional, four-walled, 20-person
conference rooms. Instead, you’ll
see that we gutted those rooms and
changed the exterior walls to glass
fronts so we could enjoy the natural
light. Our current mix of conference
spaces now includes collaboration
rooms, huddle rooms, team rooms,
soft-seating lounges, rooms for private phone calls, break rooms, pantries and open spaces that are flexible
for meetings or hosting events.
If you want to reser ve a conference space, you can book any space
on your computer, tablet or phone
using our app, or just walk up to one
of those cool touchpanels outside
the conference space and book it
from there. Green means it’s open;
red means it’s already booked. Oh,
and by the way, if you book a room
and then don’t show up there, the
occupancy-detector system detects
that and frees the room up after 15
minutes (and you are classified as
a no-show). If no-showing becomes
a reoccurring problem—you know
what they say, “Three strikes and
you’re out”—you might not have the
opportunity to book a conference
space in the future.
All of our conference facilities
include videoconferencing, but not
that bulky, expensive stuff. We use
cool, hip, software-based platforms
such as Zoom, Skype, GoToMeeting
and Webex.
Did you want water? A snack?

Christopher Maione is a recognized leader and expert in the AV industry with more than 28 years’ audiovisual expertise. His
forward-thinking and progressive approach to business led him to found and become Managing Partner of one of the world’s leading
AV consulting firms, earning the company accolades as a leader in AV solutions and technologies. Maione now focuses his attention representing owners and end users on large-scale technology projects. For more information, contact info@chrismaione.com.

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IT/AV Report

Some peanuts, licorice, trail mix or
yogurt? We’ve got some healthy options, as well as many ways to caffeinate your day. Our coffee bar is always
open, and the pantr y is stocked.
Don’t worr y—it’s all free and just
part of our plan to make you feel
comfortable and relaxed…to make
you want to stay.
To make the environment productive as can be, we added a
sound-masking system that greatly
enhances the acoustical environment, reduces distractions, improves
privacy and negates other unwanted
noise throughout the space. For your
listening pleasure, our overhead
speaker system offers up a variety of
tunes, and it is voice-activated or can
be programmed.
You’ll even find we have a game
room where you can take a break by
playing some video games or brain-

storm ideas over pool, ping pong or darts. And if you need to chill, melt down
or just relax, feel free to visit a wellness room or spend some time in one of our
meditation spaces.
Our work environment is dynamic. We don’t want our team coming to work
each day to some dungeon of an office.

The Lesson To Learn

The office of today supports an ever-evolving workforce. By offering something for ever yone, these environments are blending the needs of a diverse
workforce and catering to baby boomers, gen X, millennials and the up-and-coming gen Z. The goal is to create spaces that are inviting and technically sound—
and that reflect the personality of the companies that built them.
The lesson for AV consultants, AV integrators and end users involved in planning office floors and conference facilities is to keep in mind that your clients
have changed. Because most of us involved in office planning are on the more
senior side, we need to recognize the next generation has different needs than
what we have been designing and implementing for in the past. I would encourage you to ensure a fair mix of end-user clients are represented at your spaceplanning meetings. Listen to what they have to say about what they need (and
don’t need), and work to create a working environment that will fit their requirements. Their needs are much more informal, social and collaborative as compared to the prior office topology.
And don’t forget space for the bike racks!

Enterprise Team-Chat Solutions
This is the do-or-die year.
By David Maldow

Will Team-Chat applications like this be our future?

The hype and excitement around
Team-Chat platforms might be unprecedented in the business-collaboration
space. Some proponents go so far as to
say it is the biggest thing since email,
whereas others go further and say it
will be bigger than email! On the other
hand, it is still ver y new, and many
have questions and doubts—particularly when it comes to enterprise deployments. This year, the time for speculation will end as we learn whether the
hype is real, whether Team Chat is
just a fad and whether it is suitable for
enterprise.

What Is Team Chat?

Internet chat is not a new thing. In
fact, the first internet chat room was
used a year before email was invented.
We’ve always had chat, and Team Chat
isn’t really anything more than chat
reimagined with a project-based workflow. Yet, for many, this slight tweak to
the most basic internet communication

technology is absolutely magical. With
traditional UC chat clients, you have
a “buddy list” of colleagues, with chat
messages being in the context of the
person you are messaging. Regardless of whether you want to discuss
sales, product development, marketing,
finances or any other business matter,
you click on the name of the person to
whom you want to talk and send a chat
message.
Team Chat turns that dynamic on
its head by creating channels for each
project or discussion topic. When you
want to discuss Project X, you put your
message in the Project X channel and
ever yone on the team sees it; this saves
you from having to send multiple UC
messages or a group email. It allows a
live, continuous, on-topic team discussion over the entire course of any given
project, or in perpetuity for ongoing
projects.
Small teams using Team Chat report
that it improves team productivity,

which is obviously the primar y goal of
any collaboration tool. Perhaps just as
importantly, however, users like using
Team Chat because it gives them the
freedom not only to work remotely, but
also to work on their own schedule,
without slowing down the pace of the
team. The Team-Chat workflow provides a number of other benefits; chief
among them is the ability to review
an entire project histor y, including
shared files, simply by scrolling up or
using the search engine. However, up
until now, we have been seeing these
benefits only from teams in small to
medium businesses.

The Enterprise Team-Chat Debate

There are several legitimate concerns
about the viability of Team Chat in enterprise. It originally entered our space
as a small-to-medium-business tool. The
earliest entries in the market simply
weren’t designed with enterprise’s
security, manageability and scalability

David Maldow has been covering the visual collaboration industry and related technologies for more than a decade. His background
includes five years at Wainhouse Research, where he managed the Video Test Lab and evaluated many of the leading solutions at
the time. He has authored hundreds of articles and thought pieces for LDV and other publications, including Telepresence Options, for which he was Managing Partner for several years. He often speaks at industry events and webinars, as well as hosting
the LDV Video Podcast.

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IT/AV Report

requirements in mind. Some tools
are “enterprise ready,” but the first
Team-Chat apps simply were not. The
market is attempting to address this
in two ways: First, existing Team-Chat
vendors are adding features and capabilities to create enterprise-facing versions of their apps. Second, vendors
already in the enterprise collaboration
market (such as Cisco and Microsoft)
are creating enterprise-ready TeamChat apps from the ground up.
This does not end the debate,
however. Although we can certainly
address the technical issues required
for enterprise readiness, we also have
to determine whether the workflow, in
itself, is appropriate for enterprise. A
chat channel with five team members
is easy to keep up with, but what if
the team has 50 members? Can the
chat be moderated to keep it manageable or will it become spammy chaos?
A small business might have five to
10 active projects, which means it
would have five to 10 chat channels
to manage. An enterprise might have
thousands of active projects. Can that
be broken up and managed, or will
people become lost among thousands
of channels?
On the one hand, it seems clear
that Team Chat is a great tool for
small teams, and enterprises are made
of small teams. On the other hand,
many small-business tools simply do
not scale for enterprise. Until Team
Chat is proven to scale, the question
remains open.

Why The Team-Chat Hype?

There have been countless collaboration tools over the years that promised greater productivity and more
worker freedom. Why is it that Team
Chat has gotten so much hype as compared to other collaboration tools? The
main reason for all the media attention
has been its viral growth. Slack (the
original breakthrough ser vice in the
space) is the fastest-growing software
as a ser vice (SaaS) startup in histor y.
It also boasts an incredible conversion
rate of 30 percent of its “freemium”
customers to paid customers, as well
as an unbelievable 93-percent userretention rate. Clearly, it’s wor th paying attention to something here.
Perhaps even more compelling is
the way this growth was obtained.
It was almost entirely grassroots.
Typically, collaboration is a C-level
purchase, and adoption programs are
required to get the working teams
onboard with the new technology. In
other words, an organization must
push its workers to use the technology in order to get its money’s worth.
With Team Chat, adoption comes from
the ground up. The ser vice was spread
virally by the workers themselves,
from team to team. People simply like
using it and see the benefits quickly.
With this kind of growth and adoption, it’s no wonder that we are keenly
interested to see whether this is just a
fad or whether it’s the future of workplace collaboration, particularly in the
enterprise.

2019 Is The Time To Shine…Or Not

This year, enterprise organizations
are starting to make the plunge into the
world of Team Chat. Microsoft shared
that it has 60 enterprise customer
organizations, each with more than
10,000 active Team-Chat users. The
experiment has begun, and we are now
awaiting the results. We can’t know for
sure what will happen, but the likely
options include the following:
• Team Chat completely fails in the
enterprise. It remains an internal-only
team tool for small and medium businesses, whereas enterprise Team-Chat
solutions are replaced by the next fad
• Team Chat takes over the world. It
becomes the default business communications tool, replacing UC and
even email for internal and external
communications.
• Team Chat joins our toolset. It
doesn’t fail, but it doesn’t take over.
• Something new and unexpected hits
the market and renders this entire
discussion moot.
What does this mean for today’s
enterprise collaborators? It is the classic early-adopter dice roll. If you get
in early and it works, you have a head
start on the competition. But if it turns
out to be a fad, you have wasted time
and you’ll have to catch up. I believe
the concerns about enterprise scaling
and manageability can be addressed
by proper Team-Chat app design and
user best practices. But I’d proceed
with caution until the workflow has
been proven in the enterprise.

Team-Chat options certainly are not lacking.

www.ITAVReport.com

Spring 2019

29

opinion

From The Eye Of The Law

The possible challenges and risks for early adopters of emerging technology.
By Josh Srago
Technology is moving so quickly that
it’s often difficult just to keep up with the
current and emerging trends, let alone the
outside factors. Your organization has to
decide when it’s ready to take a leap of faith
and move away from a tried-and-true solution that you’ve used for years, and instead
implement one of these new emerging solutions. That decision isn’t easy to begin with.
But what happens when, once you’ve made
the decision to move for ward, something
of which you had not been aware adds a
complication—or, worse yet, makes it so
you have to reconsider your entire deployment? This is the tech policy landscape that
we are currently facing, in which laws are
suddenly being written that alter how we
must consider using emerging technology.

monitor and control.
This suite of products is not uncommon in
most projects being deployed today. So, what
makes this project different? You’re deploying it after January 1, 2020. That means there
is a whole host of new considerations centered on the types of laws going into effect
and the challenges they might pose.

Password Laws

Let’s start with the fully networked
system. Once 2020 rolls around, installing
a device with an IP or Bluetooth address
that can directly or indirectly connect to the
internet will get a bit more complicated in
California. In an effort to protect consumers, the legislature passed a ver y broad law
that requires either that the device manufacturers ship them with passwords that are
unique to each device or that the devices
Your New Project
For the sake of discussion, let’s say there’s force a password change prior to first use.
Top-tier companies have taken device sea project in California where new systems
curity seriously for years. They’ve changed
are going to be deployed in February 2020.
You’re currently working diligently to ensure all device passwords away from the generic
options simply because it’s the right thing
that you’ve selected the right products to
serve your purpose. You have a new wayfind- to do. However, when it comes to smallerroom solutions, for which there isn’t much
ing solution going in that ties into an app
configuration (the bulk of the rooms in any
on people’s phones, providing turn-by-turn
project), most of the devices don’t require a
instructions for how to navigate the new
programmer and can be handled by a lead
building. You’re also exploring a new software solution that provides facial recognition tech. That lead tech, however, might not be
accustomed to configuring passwords for
to identify who is attending each meeting.
the devices, only ever having had to worr y
But what you’re most excited about is the
about remembering “admin.”
fully networked system, with nearly every
What’s not factored into this law is the
device connecting to the network for you to
Josh Srago, an award-winning AV professional with experience as a consultant, integrator, manufacturer and end user, is currently
attending law school at Santa Clara University with plans to return to the audiovisual industry and aid with the quickly changing legal and regulatory landscape of technology. Any article written by Srago that includes statutory or legal analysis does not
constitute legal advice.

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IT/AV Report

idea of batch or system password
changes. The law is concerned with the
unique password of each device. What
about the systems for which the system
password is provided from a global
software suite? What about systems
that alter the individual passwords for
each device from a central software
platform? This is something that will be
quite difficult and costly for all parties
involved. Was this cost—not only in
labor, but also in time—factored into
the execution of the project? Designers
and project managers are going to have
to determine how each manufacturer
is responding to this law and changing
how passwords are configured within
their devices to determine how to account for this change.

Reasonable Expectations

Privacy is not an inherent right when
we’re out in public. It comes into play
when we have a reasonable expectation
of it. So, should we expect to have a
reasonable expectation of privacy in the
workplace? Facial-recognition software

www.ITAVReport.com

is making waves these days as a secure way to authenticate our personal
devices, such as cell phones or laptops.
However, some are starting to look at
it as an analytical tool to provide information on how system solutions are
being used, and who is using them.
We are swiftly reaching the point at
which facial recognition can be applied
to in-room conference cameras. It can
allow organizations to know where
people are, and those organizations
can apply that knowledge to see how
each individual uses meeting spaces.
Is it OK for an organization to track
its employees like that? What are the
disclosure requirements? What if they
work with law-enforcement agencies
and share information?
Constitutional considerations come
into play when we start to track
individuals in circumstances in which
they have a reasonable expectation of
privacy. It’s a more clear-cut problem
if that information is then shared with
law enforcement. It’s a massive gray
area right now, with a lot of atten-

tion being paid by various government
entities as regards the privacy rights of
individuals.
The emerging issue is that we don’t
know how laws could shift in the future,
giving us no way to advise clients
beyond the immediate term. If a client
deploys a system and a law is rewritten unfavorably toward it, what will it
take to alter the system or take it down
completely? It might seem far-fetched
to think that solutions we provide might
end up being illegal, but consideration
must be given as we look at technology
that prevailing laws have not considered
at all or have, to this point, only minimally considered.

Consumer Protections

A hot-button topic for tech policy
these days is consumer protection. The
General Data Protections Regulation
(GDPR) in the EU has sparked significant interest in updating data protection
and privacy laws in the US. California
has already passed the California
Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA); it bears

Spring 2019

31

opinion

some similarities to GDPR, but it offers
its own twists.
Thinking about our project, we have
to begin by considering that wayfinding solution that will live on people’s
personal devices. We have to ask, “If
we use this solution, what personally identifiable information (PII) is
accessed on the devices and stored?”
Then, we have to ask who has access
to that information. Next, we have to
ask the technical questions about how
that information is being transmitted,
parsed, stored and analyzed. Finally,
we have to consider whether we are
operating in an opt-out-requirement
state or an opt-in-requirement state.
The new landscape for these regulations significantly alters the way we
must approach system design and consider Systems as a Ser vice (SaaS). The
trend has been to move the business
model in that direction, but, if we are
not abiding by the regulator y structure
of the location where the business
exists, we are opening ourselves up to
ver y real issues.

Specifically, we want to look at the
opt-in versus opt-out requirement. In
an opt-in regulator y structure, we are
usually not allowed to capture any
personal information if the user has not
provided actual permission to do so.
In an opt-out structure, we can capture
the information so long as the user is
given notice that the information is
being captured; however, the user may
retract his or her permission for us
to capture that data. Being as there is
currently no national privacy law in the
US (although one might be proposed
in Congress soon), each state will have
the ability to determine what’s best. If
you do business with clients all over
the countr y, you might have to know all
the laws. If you do business with one
client across many states, which law
should you apply, and where?

Ignorance Is Damaging

The truth is, coming to an understanding of these legal challenges is
something that just has to become part
of our daily routine. We have to be able

to communicate these issues to our
clients. We have to understand which
party—manufacturer, integrator, end
user or some combination—is responsible for ensuring the proper protections are in place.
This might seem like paranoia. But
the realities that come with supplying networked devices and software
solutions mean not only that we have
to think about what it takes to supply
a functioning audiovisual ecosystem
to meet client needs, but also that we
have to think about what policies are
changing the way these ecosystems
can be deployed, configured and sold.
You’ve heard for years that AV is becoming IT. The fact that we must now
concern ourselves with the legal challenges that IT solutions already face
makes this abundantly clear. Given
how quickly the technology moves and
how slowly the laws change, keeping
our eye on both is a requirement, and
we must be vigilant in tending to it. If
not, we put our clients and ourselves
at risk.

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A range of voices weigh in on the continuing debate.
By Marc Cooper
Marc Cooper is a
senior engineer at
Citigroup responsible for global
system conferencing standards. His
years of experience
span feature film
sound recording,
broadcast television
production, and UC
development and implementation within
the enterprise.

This edition of “Viewpoint” focuses on industry trends in
videoconferencing system solutions—namely, purpose-built appliances versus PC-based software codecs. We have seen these
competing paradigms again and again over the years within
the AV industry. This time, however, the issue has been made
particularly interesting due to a proliferation of offerings from
cloud-based providers like Zoom; the introduction of Microsoft
Teams, which requires a Windows 10 platform; and the popularity of smaller, lower-cost huddle rooms. It is interesting to see
the popularity and growth of PC-based software solutions as
a competent offering for inexpensive small-room situations.
And, yet, we are also seeing some very robust, purpose-built,
appliance-based solutions at ever-lower costs.
What is right for your organization? The answer might have
a lot to do with how you are set up to run your service, how
you manage your endpoints and support your clients, and
what your end users require to conduct their business successfully.
As someone who has been in this business for more than 20
years, I have seen videoconferencing room systems migrate in
form factor. My first experiences required the integration of very
large, standalone, appliance-based video codecs with displays,
cameras, PTZ units, control systems, microphones, external
echo cancellers, amplifiers, speakers, and network and dialing
components. Each component was a standalone device that had
to be incorporated into a complete system. It was complex, it
was expensive, and it required tremendous resources to operate
and maintain, and to support the end user. Eventually, manufacturers like CLI, PictureTel, Polycom and VTEL introduced
integrated systems that bundled all these components into a
complete box solution.
Not too long after that, I remember seeing the first PCbased personal videoconferencing systems. They used PCs
www.ITAVReport.com

(of course), and they came bundled with speakerphones and
headsets, as well as small desktop cameras. They used the PC
monitor as a display. I was amazed that the video communication could be ported to the computer—a device that I used for
spreadsheets, word processing and email. At first, we used
specialized Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) cards,
and then we transitioned to audio- and video-over-IP.
Initially, these PC-based systems were operated like all computers, using a mouse and a keyboard, whereas room systems
had specialized interfaces that could be operated more comfortably at the table (usually with an infrared (IR) remote or a
dedicated push-button or touchpanel). Now, we are seeing room
systems that run on PCs, along with external mic systems and
touchpanel interfaces that are more suitable for the conference
room. Many of these PC-based soft-codec systems are tied to
a powerful cloud-based service that has sophisticated backend management, including virtual meeting rooms (VMRs), call
monitoring and routing, redundant reliable service and more.
So, where is all this going? What should we be investing in
and planning for? First, let me say that, in my organization, we
have done a tremendous amount of work to develop support
models for our appliance-based systems. We have dedicated
support teams whose members know voice-over-IP (VoIP)
and the associated hardware. We have standardized on a user
interface that is in use globally. We have systems to monitor our
endpoints and integrated peripherals proactively. We get great
value from our built-in, high-end microphones and playback systems. In fact, we have been able to utilize new, smaller, purposebuilt, appliance-based solutions at a competitive cost. Changing
to a PC-based software-codec solution would require a lot of
planning, changes to our support models, and creative solutions
to maintain the proper user experience and interoperability.
The rate at which technology and the market are changing
today is unprecedented. We all have to be prepared for whatever
direction the market takes. Enterprise technology managers,
product managers, engineers, manufacturers and end users are
not excepted, either. It is important that all of us always keep
an eye on maintaining/improving the user experience, regardless of the technology solution. The free market will dictate the
products built and supported by manufacturers. Whoever creates
that better, more affordable mousetrap will win. As managers
and technologists, we must make sure that our solutions don’t
fall short of our end users’ needs, regardless of the technology
being used.
As per the name “Viewpoint,” we have striven to get a variety
of views, each a unique perspective that, often, is influenced
by how the respondent is positioned within the industry. The
participants are end users, manufacturers, service providers
and an analyst. I hope each of these viewpoints provides some
insight into trends, the pros/cons of the available solutions and
the choices we face.
Spring 2019

33

viewpoint

The close association between software
codecs and huddle rooms is inevitable,
given that the majority of articles and
marketing materials regarding cloud video
originate from the concept of the huddle
space.

Recently, the open floorplan has
come to dominate corporate space
planning, with huddle rooms outnumbering traditional, larger conference
rooms. Deploying hardware solutions
in huddle rooms does not make sense
from a cost or support perspective.
AllianceBernstein recently implemented
our first software codecs into these
collaboration spaces.
We also took the opportunity to
launch an enterprise account to the
firm, including an associated Outlook
plugin and mobile account. The results
were immediate. These soft-codec huddle rooms, coupled with the mobile/
desktop solution, were instantly embraced across our organization. A key
to this user adoption was the simple
and familiar user interface across the
soft-codec environment.

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IT/AV Report

This success led us to consider the benefit of widespread implementation of this solution. We quickly began
to develop a more integrated system that could bring
software codecs to larger conference rooms. We have
since added 100 soft-codec-enabled rooms globally, and
we are on pace to add 100 rooms with the same capabilities over the next calendar year.
Prior to launching a soft-codec platform, all videoconferences were scheduled and managed by our AV team.
We managed an average of 4,000 to 5,000 videoconferences per month. Since the implementation of the soft
codec, the benefits could not be clearer. Our number of
videoconferences scheduled and managed has nearly
doubled. Indeed, it is not uncommon to log 10,000 videoconferences a month. We’ve successfully accelerated
the use of video, we’ve drawn closer to a fully self-service
model, and we’ve enabled our entire global workforce to
adapt and collaborate via video.
This sweeping change will not eliminate hardware
codecs. They will still have a place in our spaces that
require a level of remote production that soft-codecbased solutions have yet to offer (i.e., far-end camera
control, discrete audio controls, automated connections).
Those spaces include boardrooms, multi-purpose areas
and event spaces. However, their inventory will decrease,
and their design will allow them to operate on both
hardware and software platforms. We are actively working
to refresh the control-system interface in these rooms to
mimic the native soft-codec experience. This will present
users with a familiar platform experience across rooms,
desktop and mobile.
Although hardware codecs remain useful, it is clear
to me that software codecs represent the future. The
palpable anxiety throughout the AV sphere pertaining to
the traction of soft codecs seems shortsighted. Of the
recent emerging technologies that have led AV and IT to
collaborate further, the adoption of soft codecs is perhaps
the best opportunity for AV to elevate itself from fifthwheel status within the IT space. The deployment of this
technology into our environment encouraged—indeed,
required—the AV, networking, security and client-services
teams to align tightly to ensure we delivered a usable, secure tool that clearly improved our firm’s communication.
Manufacturers, integrators and corporate AV professionals all bring unique and necessary skills to the table
in this new era of workplace transformation. We have to
test our assumptions and adapt, rather than fruitlessly
fighting evolution. There’s exciting work to be done.

END USER
Joshua Klempner
VP, Global Multimedia
Citigroup

Soft videoconferencing solutions will
continue to come at us at a blinding speed.
There is no turning back from the allure of
next-to-free clients installed on already-existing platforms. The value associated with
supposedly hardware-less endpoints is a
tough argument from which to walk away.
There is not much choice given the future
outlook of the ever-shrinking hardwarecodec market.
We will increasingly leverage these
solutions—especially in the enterprise
environment—but I have found that the
excitement about quality and features can
mask critical considerations that will make
the difference between an efficient video
network and one packed with landmines
(for example, big hidden costs). Your
vendor might or might not be able to alert
you to, and guard you from, these pitfalls.

www.ITAVReport.com

It takes significant focus—namely, evaluating the consistency of your end users’
platforms—to mount a successful effort that will create the user experience your
CIO and senior leadership expect.
Let’s take a look at some of the usual suspects. In a virtual environment, end
users are expected to connect to, and work on, different workstations across an
uneven environment. System deployments can often look the same, but, often,
they contain mild variations to adjust for some kind of field condition that a
given business has. Device profile setting requirements, even for similar peripherals like cameras and audio devices, can prove inconsistent from platform to
platform. How specific is your enterprise standard, really? Are there multiple flavors of standards, as is so commonly the case in larger enterprise deployments?
What about other applications that are pushed regularly to these thick and thin
platforms that are now your video endpoint? These pushes occasionally rely
on and change global settings that affect audio and video devices. How are you
going to work with the desktop-support teams to lock down registry settings?
Considerations like these can ruin any hope of a consistent experience for agile
workers who depend on interfacing with different desktops, sometimes daily.
Will function be maintained for a traveling executive who is using a “touchdown room” in a different region than the one in which he is normally situated?
Speaking of support, consider what a global support model must look like in
order to assist with all the hardware peripherals, some of which can be tricky to
use. With video communications and conferencing, everything is happening in
real time. Unlike with email messaging or other information systems, functionality cannot be corrected offline later; rather, it must be ready and working during
the meeting or other event. Indeed, if a quality user experience is to be effectuated, then, if possible, all issues must be addressed in real time.
All the above-mentioned requirements sound daunting—and they are. There
is also tremendous upside, however. Most popular with the C-suite crowd is
the attractive cost. It’s almost impossible to deploy hardware solutions at any
real scale in a way that can compete with the cost of a soft-codec solution.
Complementing reduced initial and reoccurring costs is the powerful integration
that software clients can provide. The way forward demands a full set of tools
that can seamlessly incorporate all the communications elements that our agile
work demands: Presence, chat, screen-sharing and audio all have to be included,
along with video on the desktop, with all elements working together.
Another “must have” that software video meeting solutions and services can
deliver is a truly mobile client. Mobility is no longer a “nice to have”; in fact,
from executives to operational managers on the go, most everyone relies on it to
ensure continuity of business and compatibility.
In conclusion, software video solutions are no trivial matter. With sound planning and good corporate sponsorship, however, your organization can succeed
in leveraging both technologies that are here today and technologies that will
arrive in the future to support the way we meet and do business.

Spring 2019

35

viewpoint

What Is A Software-Based Codec?
What have been loosely called “software-based codecs” have been getting a lot more
attention lately. The term is a bit misleading, though, because what typically distinguishes them from an appliance is not that they are software based; rather, what typically distinguishes them is creating an endpoint by layering software and hardware from
separate companies. Typically, they
1. are based on PC or Mac hardware
2. are operated through a personal computer OS (usually Windows or MacOS)
3. have a meeting application delivered and managed separately from the OS
4. have cameras, microphones and speakers delivered separately, or as an all-in-one
peripheral.
This might be controlled like a normal PC, with a keyboard and mouse, or through
a tablet. If a tablet is used, then there is often more layering—usually, a tablet running
iOS or Android with a meeting application on top. Some vendors offer Windows 10
devices that have an integrated touch control.
Advantages Of Appliances
The appliance approach is just as focused on software, if not more so. The difference
is that the hardware, embedded OS and application software are all worked on together
and delivered as a single product from the vendor. As computing pioneer Alan Kay said,
“People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.”
Delivering an appliance gives the manufacturer full control over the hardware and the
operating system. This allows a single update regime, security patches, easier install,
manageability and an end-to-end user experience. All the layers are controlled by the
vendor and tested together. Meeting endpoints always have to have compute available
to process audio and video with low latency, and this level of control makes it easier to
deliver that reliably.
Appliances can be designed to avoid the need for fans, which can create noise. They
allow low-power modes with the screen and the processor turned off, where the rest
of the hardware can quickly be powered up when a sensor detects people in the room.
They do not expose an easily accessed power button on the tablet or device, which a
user might use to turn off the system and, thus, result in the next room user being confused. They also typically require fewer wires, and they’re easier to deploy neatly and in
a way that is easy to maintain.
With an appliance, a customer gets a single source for support and service.
Deployment & Management
PCs are designed to either be used by an end user or be managed as a server. Some
“software-based” meeting solutions are expected to be used directly by the end user
with a keyboard and mouse. Depending on how the system is set up, the user might
have to login before the meeting, thus creating delays. The user might forget to logout,
install undesired software or leave the system in an unwanted state. If the operating
system is not tightly managed, the end user might receive notifications about available
software updates on which the administrator does not want the user to act.
The other typical model is to treat the PC more like a server, hiding access to it and
exposing only a tablet. Doing so can improve things, but it does not eliminate the need
to manage the device and operating system; it also does not change the fact that it is
still a PC in a public space, rather than a server that is physically secured.
With an appliance approach, someone deploying endpoints does not separately
have to manage computer OS software updates, tablet OS updates, and updates to the
conferencing application on the PC and tablet. More sophisticated IT departments might
have the tooling to do this, but the tooling might be separate for managing tablets and
managing PCs, and, often, the tools are owned by an organization separate from that of
those who manage the meeting software.

36

IT/AV Report

MANUFACTURER
John Restrick
CTO – Webex Devices
Cisco
www.cisco.com

Consistency Across Scenarios
Another thing to consider is that
most organizations have a variety
of meeting spaces and, ideally, they
want a set of products they can
deploy across those spaces that
provides a consistent experience for
users and a consistent method of
managing the devices. Appliances
can cover this wide variety of spaces.
Benefits of appliances vary, as different form factors cater to different needs. Benefits can include the
following:
1. All-in-one devices can help lower
total cost of ownership (TCO) and
provide a simple, reliable install
delivering an excellent experience.
2. Integrated kits can allow you to
choose the display separately, while
having the codec, microphones,
speakers and camera designed into a
single unit.
3. Standalone codecs can provide
the audiovisual inputs and outputs
to handle more custom or complicated spaces. When installing a
training room, briefing center or
boardroom, this is almost mandatory. Spaces of that sort are particularly challenging for a softwarebased codec.

A picture is worth a thousand words.
That’s why it’s no surprise that videoconferencing has changed how, where and
even when we work.
Although appliance-based videoconferencing systems create more immersive
experiences (think HD video and surround
sound), they are often limited to room-toroom interactions.
Today’s modern employee demands
flexibility and immediacy. Personal and
professional lives are becoming increasingly intertwined. Inspiration and unforeseen requests can strike at any time—and
employees cannot afford to be confined to
the four walls of their office.
MANUFACTURER
Whether they are answering a quick
Michael Goldman
question from a colleague while in line at
Executive Director, Enterprise
the supermarket, brainstorming with the
Strategies & Development
team before boarding a flight or presenting
Crestron Electronics
to the board while on a weekend getaway,
www.crestron.com
employees want the ability to do business
on the fly. And that’s where software-based
videoconferencing solutions come in.
The proliferation of software-based players and
technologies, such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams,
makes it easier than ever for employees to collaborate
and be more productive anytime, anywhere, on any
device.
And in a world in which the user experience reigns
supreme, cloud-based videoconferencing solutions
provide a consistent experience regardless of where

they’re deployed—whether they’re in
the boardroom or in the living room. At
the same time, software-based offerings
provide a more collaborative and productive employee experience by giving
employees the added bonus of being
able to share screens, message one
another and send documents.
Our company has recognized the
industry shift to software-based videoconferencing applications, which is why
we created products that support the
most popular third-party UC platforms.
Although hardwired, appliance-based
systems can—and should—continue
to play a central role in high-stakes
meetings that take place within the four
walls of the enterprise, cloud-based
offerings will become ubiquitous to
meet the needs of today’s flexible work
environment.

Conclusion
Software-based codecs are being tried out by many
companies. The ease of purchasing, and getting started
with, these commodity-based hardware approaches has
made them particularly popular with small and medium
businesses (SMBs), departmental purchasers and in
smaller meeting spaces. Deploying and wiring these components together, installing the software, managing them
and maintaining them often proves more difficult than had
been expected. Many customers who have gone down
this path have started to look for solutions that are easier
to deploy, manage and operate. Appliances are mature
solutions that offer reliability, security and a consistently
high-quality experience. We recommend customers take
a close look at the breadth of rooms and spaces in which
they wish to deploy, the experience they will deliver
across those spaces, and their plan for maintaining and
operating their systems.

www.ITAVReport.com

Spring 2019

37

viewpoint

When selecting a videoconference
room solution, the dilemma of choosing an appliance solution (a standardsbased, single-purpose solution) versus a
software-based solution (with either open
hardware or fixed hardware) has created
a paradigm competition. At Zoom, we
believe flexibility, reliability, security and
usability are all critical components of
a great conference-room experience for
both the end users and the administrators
who deploy room solutions. Instead of focusing on siloed solutions, each of which
has its pros and cons, we’re creating an
ecosystem that allows our customers to
tap into the best of these worlds.
We see tremendous value in having
flexible hardware options supported by
a software-based room system, especially when it comes to large conference
rooms, training rooms, etc. With flexible
hardware, you can customize your AV
for the space—rather than making the
space work around the hardware—all
while supporting use cases that were
never previously possible. Many times,
these spaces require additional monitors,
microphones, speakers and cameras for

an optimal experience. An open-hardware
ecosystem, paired with a software-based
room system, makes this possible.
From a scalability perspective, appliance solutions provide a lot of value.
They’re typically easier to deploy and
simpler to set up due to their single purpose and preconfigured nature. With the
proliferation of video-enabled rooms—
especially huddle rooms—driving the
demand for simplified deployments with
uncompromising quality, appliance-mode
options provide standardized solutions
that help organizations scale video
across their workspaces. We’ve worked
with leading hardware partners to deliver
single-purpose, plug-and-play solutions
that leverage many of the benefits of
traditional appliance solutions.
With our solution, we’re creating a
paradigm shift in the options to which
customers have access. You can now
tap into the benefits of appliance solutions without losing the leverage of an
open-hardware ecosystem to cater to
the different needs and use cases of the
enterprise.

I have always been a proponent of developing and leveraging software-based collaboration solutions. After all, on the surface, the benefits seem impressive, including
the ability to deploy software solutions on your own servers, PCs and mobile devices.
In addition, the ability to scale more easily and leverage virtual server technology
to build high-availability collaboration platforms has opened the door for cloudbased solutions and services to take hold and, in many cases, to replace the legacy,
purpose-built appliances that were a mainstay for the past 20 years or so. It would
seem we are where we want to be.
Well…not so fast. If we look at this from an operations perspective, there are some
things to consider. As I listen to customers who are making the transition to huddle
rooms with software-based solutions, we are beginning to see a few gaps; in fact,
some customers are beginning to rethink their approach because of them. The gaps
are in a few key areas: user experience, monitoring, and management and security.
The user experience is the area in which we have been sold the idea that softwarebased solutions provide ease of use, flexibility and mobility. The challenge that has
arisen is that “self-service” doesn’t mean “no service.” That is because we now have
to support individuals and not the room. The purpose-built appliances have been
designed for a specific function, with cameras and audio equipment tightly integrated
to provide a consistent experience. That is no longer the case when you have USB devices connected to a PC or laptop that is running one or potentially more UC applications. Some of those other applications might be trying to use the very same camera
and microphone that the collaboration software wants to use, causing a potentially
inconsistent or poor user experience.
From a monitoring and management perspective, it is relatively easy to capture
information from a purpose-built device, many of which support Simple Network
Management Protocol (SNMP) to provide details about the performance of the device.

However, trying to monitor a PC that is running multiple applications with USBconnected devices is a difficult task. Currently, there is no good way to do so. About
the best you can do is to know the PC is online and has the collaboration application
running.
Finally, security is another big challenge. Purpose-built devices are capable of being locked down and having encryption as a default setting. Although software-based
solutions have the ability to do the same, the fact that they are running on a shared
device, with potentially multiple applications, and multiple people who might have to
be able to log in, poses some serious security concerns.
I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think this is an all-or-nothing decision for customers. There is a growing
trend for what I would call a hybrid solution, where we have purpose-built devices
but with the flexibility of running software-based collaboration tools. These new entrants attempt to take the best of both worlds in that they are better tuned to provide

a consistent experience and be monitored
and managed, but they also can leverage
the leading software solutions.
The days of have one homogeneous
collaboration platform are probably gone.
It is important to keep the user experience
and operational requirements front of
mind as we design and deploy collaboration solutions, regardless of whether we
use purpose-built appliances or softwarebased solutions.

are going after the conference-room and huddle-room
markets, are enabling their appliances or applications on
a plethora of hardware products (cameras, displays, audio systems, etc.). As the theory goes, these lower-cost
implementations will give businesses the opportunity to
outfit more rooms and increase user access.
When enabling huddle rooms, companies must
consider how they will be used; that includes being able
to accommodate both internal and external communication. Collaborating with customers, partners, suppliers

SERVICE PROVIDER
Tom-Erik Lia
CCO
Pexip
www.pexip.com

Our company has an interesting vantage point on this subject, as we work
with customers regularly who have invested in traditional hardware codecs
from the likes of Cisco and Poly, and who want to extend the life of those
assets. Those organizations chose hardware codecs because of the quality,
reliability and security that they deliver, and those needs havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t changed.
More often, companies find that their legacy video infrastructure no longer
meets the needs of the organization. Whether the infrastructure faces end of
life or the maintenance costs simply become too great, many organizations
are looking to more flexible alternatives. The challenge becomes how organizations can get the most from their existing videoconferencing investments,
while also meeting the needs of the future workforce.
At the same time, we work with many organizations that realize the changing needs of their users, and which want to make video more accessible to
them regardless of where they work. The rise of mobile workers has created
new demand for flexible workspaces and collaboration tools that work across
any device. Clearly, video plays a big role in both areas. Microsoft Teams and
Google Hangouts Meet are aggressively working to capture a major share of
this evolving space. They, along with a number of other video providers that

and other third parties is a regular part of many users’ workflow, and it’s important
to choose tools that enable—rather than hinder—collaboration of that sort. When an
employee is invited to a meeting hosted on a different videoconferencing service, he
or she should be able to join the meeting with the technology and workflows to which
that employee is accustomed. We believe it should be simple for anyone to join a
meeting, regardless of where he or she is, and irrespective of which technology that
individual uses. Silos inhibit growth and adoption.
We don’t think there is a right or wrong answer in the debate about appliance
versus software codec. At the end of the day, it all comes down to the user experi-

As a technology manager in the late 2000s, one of the projects
with which we were tasked was designing and deploying a videoconferencing system for a research facility on our campus. This
room was dedicated to the scientists using the campus to connect
to their cohorts from China to Costa Rica, as well as other research
centers. At that time, you had various vendors but only one path:
hardware codec.
If you’ve been in the audiovisual and UC space for 10 to 15
years, then you know what happened next. We had bids from several appliance manufacturers that varied from $10,000 to $50,000.
Those prices included variations on the number of simultaneous
connections, SD or HD, and the types of cameras. In the end, we
went with a model that landed around $20,000, along with a $1,000
annual subscription for three years.
Fast-forwarding to today, you have more than 200 softwarebased codecs (soft codecs) that not only are ubiquitous, but also
use interfaces that typically are more intuitive. The remote control,
which has been lamented about for being too cumbersome and
difficult to understand, has been completely eliminated. The mobile
applications of these soft codecs tend to be more user friendly
and robust. Then there is the cost factor. The room I referenced
earlier served an average of 10 scientists. At an average half-life of
seven years, that system cost the college $27 per month per user.
Today’s soft codecs are priced well below that—from free to $20
per month.
This is not to indicate that videoconferencing hardware is completely dead. There are several use cases for designing a system
with an appliance. For instance, the corporate boardroom that is
used not only as a marquee room, but also for larger meetings and
connecting several people remotely. There are some industries that
rely on AV for secure connections, both from a network-security
perspective and for the privacy of the room itself. The legal, government, medical and higher-education verticals all have laws that
govern the information that is allowed to be released at various
stages. Professionals in those areas rely on audiovisual integrators
to create safe and secure rooms in which they can connect with
clients remotely, but also privately.
In terms of mass adoption and usage, soft codecs will continue
to increase their gains on hardware. As outlined earlier, one of the
main reasons is cost. Hardware-based systems have come down in
price over the last 10 years, but there is still a significant commitment relative to space, time and capital when going down the road

40

IT/AV Report

ence. Participants must be able to join
their meetings easily from wherever they
are, on whichever device they choose,
and know they will have a high-quality
meeting experience. This intuitive, seamless experience is critical to driving user
adoption and helping organizations get
the most from their existing videoconferencing investments.

ANALYST
Tim Albright
Founder
AVNation Media

of appliance UC. In addition, the rise of
remote workers, cutbacks in travel budgets
and increases in internet bandwidth also
give soft codecs a significant advantage
over hardware systems.
The bottom line, as with any system,
is that a thorough needs assessment will
help drive your design. There will certainly
be use cases in which an appliance makes
sense for your client. It would also do your
clients (and yourself) a service to educate
yourself on the features, costs and deployment strategies of each of the software
codecs available today, as well as the new
ones that will come along.

OPINION: THE LAST WORD: THE YIN AND YANG OF EMERGING TECHNOLOGY
(continued from page 42)
The Yang: Customers
entrepreneur came up with a ser vice
Ahead Of The Technology
that offered multi-source, multi-direcThe flip side is when the customers
tion, simultaneous content sharing.
(meaning those who use and depend
We’re talking about real web conferon technology) are ahead of the curencing. He pitched his version of web
rently available generation of it. A
conferencing to his rather impressive
few examples from the non-AV world
roster of enterprise clients. The result?
include the following:
Bupkis. Nada. Nothing. The customers
• Smart Homes: Homeowners today
heard his stor y and liked what they
are ver y interested in home automasaw, but the idea of sharing multiple

has reversed itself in one key area: The
Huddle Concept.
To be clear, I am not talking about
huddle rooms—this isn’t just about
meeting spaces. This is about The
Huddle Concept, which is a topic I’ve
studied and analyzed extensively for
more than five years. The Huddle
Concept is almost the opposite of the
AV industr y norms for the last 50-plus

Table 1.

threads of content at the same time was
more than they could bear—at the time.
In the end, a truly emerging technology
solution fell flat on its face. And so it
went.
The histor y of the AV industr y
includes many examples of technology
that either failed to gain market acceptance or gained acceptance only after
many attempts, many years or many
rounds of improvement. Sometimes,
the form or business model surrounding those technologies had to change
to attract serious buyers. What follows
are just a few examples: quadraphonic
sound, beta max video, dictation via
speech recognition, machine vision,
the entire “go to cloud” concept for
collaboration, and IP, HD and now 4K
videoconferencing.
Perhaps today’s “yin” technology is artificial intelligence (AI), loosely defined
technology that is sure to affect the AV
industry in the medium-to-long-term
future. Although HAL (the villainous
computer that starred in “2001: A Space
Odyssey”) might be decades away,
today’s information workers are already
thinking about loss of privacy and bigbrother watchdogs, as well as potential
job losses to robots that have advanced
capabilities.
www.ITAVReport.com

tion. Yet, despite marketing hype to
the contrar y, the currently available
tools and systems are costly and
complex.
• Solar Power: Ever y year, without
exception, I spend an hour looking
into the viability of going “off the grid”
and using solar power. Unfortunately,
even today, and even with the available
subsidies, the technology (or, more
specifically, the cost/benefit ratio) is
just not there—at least, not yet.
• Electric Vehicles: Who wouldn’t
want to reduce the costs of, and the
emissions associated with, driving their car? And, full disclosure: I
already drive an electric vehicle. However, for many people, the currently
available technology doesn’t provide
the range or the cost-effectiveness
that they expect.
In all of these cases, the customers’
(or the prospects’) expectations are
ahead of the technology. The result?
Bupkis. Nada. Nothing. The potential
customers don’t make a purchase.
Now, let’s go back to the AV/collaboration world. In my 25-plus years in
this space, the technology has always
been ahead of the market, resulting in
a palpable technology-assimilation gap.
But, in the last few years, the situation

years, as highlighted by Table 1.
The entire concept of hosting informal, ad-hoc meetings in smaller, lightly
equipped (and significantly lower-cost)
meeting rooms took the AV industr y
by surprise. The customers knew what
they wanted, but they were far ahead of
the AV vendors and channel partners.
(An aside: This technology “lag” was
not caused by technology alone. Many
vendors, channel partners and others
in the AV value chain made a conscious
decision to maintain their traditionalsolution mindset to delay the inevitable
revenue and profit reductions associated with selling lower-cost products
and ser vices.)
What does all of this mean? In its
simplest form, success requires far more
than just a great product or service. And
simply offering some form of emerging
technology doesn’t mean the money will
start rolling in. The battlefield is littered
with the remains of great companies
that offered “emerging technology”
solutions. Those few that survived and
actually thrived understood that the key
to success is providing solutions compatible with the user’s mindset.
The “yin” (an emerging technology
offering) without the “yang” (a ready
customer) just doesn’t work.
Spring 2019

41

opinion

The Last Word

The yin and yang of emerging technology.
By Ira M. Weinstein

In my role as an industr y analyst, I am exposed to an amazing array of
leading-edge, and often bleeding-edge, technology. Sometimes, the offerings
are generally available; other times, they’re beta or alpha, or pre-alpha, or just
barely beyond a mock-up. To be honest, I absolutely love it. What engineer
wouldn’t love the chance to play around with the newest tech tools sporting the
newest features and the latest workflows?
Often, I’m lucky enough to be in on the ground floor of a new product or
ser vice concept…an idea or notion that didn’t exist before. And I’m not talking
about something evolutionar y like a smaller form factor, a higher resolution, a
faster processing speed or an easier mounting method, either. I’m talking about
an inspirational moment of greatness in which a problem (or an opportunity)
is analyzed and a truly better solution is defined. Sometimes, I’m read into the
solution; other times, I’m part of defining and molding the solution. Either way,
these are the times that change lives.
After more than 15 years helping companies define new offerings and performing hands-on testing of technology tools, I’ve come to realize that emerging
technology can only emerge if the intended audience has the proper mindset.

The Yin: Technology Ahead Of The Customers

First, I am not minimizing the importance of a never-ending cycle of new
products or ser vice offerings. It is critical that vendors, channel partners and
even end users push the limits and dare to be different. That’s the only way to
move things for ward. But, sometimes, the customers aren’t ready.
For example, roughly 10 years ago, an innovative channel partner realized
that what the industr y lovingly referred to as web conferencing was actually not
web conferencing at all; rather, it was one-way screen sharing. So, this
(continued on page 41)
Ira M. Weinstein is Founder and Managing Partner at Recon Research, an independent research, advisory and consulting firm
focused on enterprise communications. He is an expert on communication solutions, audiovisual systems, and unified communications products and services. During his 25-plus years in the industry, he has authored hundreds of articles and reports on the
companies, products, services, trends and happenings in these markets. He is also a frequent speaker at industry events and conferences, sales kickof fs and other forums.

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